1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates in general to electrode pastes, and more particularly, to high quality high capacity electrode pastes having a plurality of particles having at least a portion of their respective surfaces in contact with an electrolyte. The invention is also directed to a process for fabricating the electrode paste.
2. Background Art
Electrode pastes associated with electrolytic cells have been known in the art for several years. Although such electrode pastes have been readily utilized in the industry, problems have been identified with respect to increasing the quality and utilization of the known theoretical capacity of such pastes. Specifically, the current manufacturing technology of electrode pastes provides for a process whereby the particle components of the pastes are ground powders having a predetermined particle size, and agglomerated particles which are subsequently incorporated into a liquid medium.
One of the problems associated with conventional electrode pastes is that a substantial plurality of the particles do not remain in contact with the solution. Indeed, when such conventional processes for fabricating the pastes are used, undesirable particle characteristics, such as agglomeration and poor particle wet-ability, are virtually unavoidable. The undesired characteristics cause at least two problems in the context of manufacturing high quality high capacity electrode pastes: 1) non-uniform electrode surface areas of contact are created; and 2) unavoidable clogging of the coating die during the electrode fabrication is observed.
Uniformity among the electrode surface areas of contact is an important attribute of any fabricated electrode--including electrodes used in association with thin film multi-cell batteries, where each individual cell requires extremely uniform performance characteristics to ensure battery life longevity. For example, if one electrode of such a multi-cell battery exhibits non-uniform surface characteristics resulting from, for example, an agglomeration of particles, the distance between an adjacent electrode may be significantly reduced. Consequently, this may significantly increase the electrical field intensity at one vector, thus dramatically increasing the probability of a short circuit between the electrodes.